The NERVE! My local hospital has banned smoking on all hospital property!

[callous taoboy]

These reactionaries have posted signs at all parking lot entrances prohibiting smoking. What, they don't want sick people getting sicker at the hospital? I'm taking my chronic cough problem down the street to the quack shack from now on!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Holy crap!

I haven't been this upset since they started putting up "employees must wash hands after using restroom" signs.

I'm sorry, is this America or Nazi Germany?!!1!11!

[northzax]

2. no, but they did, in essence

just ban smoking by all their employees. if you are working a 20 hour shift, now you can't engage in a perfectly legal activity (one that does not affect your ability to work, like drinking would) on your break?

[Heddi]

4. My employer (hospital) bans smoking on property

BUT---your car is considered an extention of YOUR personal property.

If one of the 20,073,281 Security guards catches you standing outside your car lighting up, they give you a little "warning" paper reminding you that you can't smoke on hospital property. HOWEVER--nothing is said if you're smoking INSIDE your car, because THAT is not hospital property---even if it's parked on hospital property.

Us smoking nurses (and MDs--there are quite a few of us) often go outside hospital property and stand on the sidewalk by the bus station. It's right on the other side of the nicely manicured lawn of the hospital, but it's city property (sidewalk and bus-stop), not hospital.

I had some new assholish Security Guard try to give me a warning paper about smoking at the bus-stop once. I reminded him that the bus stop was not hospital property, neither was the sidewalk. He got very frustrated and walked away.

[callous taoboy]

7. Well, what's next? Banning the SMELL of ciggy stink on my person? Gosh!

[northzax]

8. um, now you are regulating what people smell like?

perhaps the hospital should have an official deoderant, so everyone fits in?

[TahitiNut]

10. That's apparently how it now works here in Royal Oak (MI) at Beaumont Hospital.

They even give a "hint" on their signs: "... please extinguish all smoking materials as you exit your vehicle."

[MediaBabe]

16. In some cities it's illegal to smoke at a bus shelter.

Or at a transit station. The no-smoking rule is enforceable by warning, fine and/or exclusion. The big city near me has transit police to do the enforcing.

[blondeatlast]

5. There's a local employer (with excellent employee relations--one of the best companies in the US to

work for) just two miles from my house. They've banned smoking. They offer free child care, a gym, excellent health coverage, etc.

So on breaks, the employees get in their cars, drive off into the bus pullouts, have a smoke, and get back to work.

I don't see the problem?! :shrug:

[northzax]

6. well, hm

besides the encouraging the extra use of fossil fuels? kinda discriminatory to people who don't have cars, right?

[blondeatlast]

13. Too fucking bad, IMHO. But thanks. nt

[colinmom71]

22. But smoking does effect those whom health care workers care for...

I have never forgotten when we brought our son home from the hospital after his 5 month NICU stay (former 24 week preemie). He came home on monitors and supplemental oxygen and could not be around any smokers as a result. As we were bringing him down to the lobby to go out the main entrance, there were about 8-10 smokers huddled right at the door of the main entrance, filling the whole entry area (a covered corridor of sorts) with massive amounts of cigarette smoke. The nurse helping us with discharge had to chase them all off and wait with us for about 15-20 minutes to make sure the air quality has cleared up just to take our son to the car to leave!

And from the smokers' reactions, you'd have thought we asked them to sacrifice an arm and a leg to go out of the corridor and into the open lawn space where the designated smoking area was to begin with, even though the nurse kindly explained why they needed to move and that they could see us with the baby and all his equipment through the large windows. Yeah, it was January but it was also only about 50 degrees out.

Luckily, my son is no longer as sensitive to smoke and such as he was feared to be then 12 years ago. But I've gotten a good bit worse with my reactive airway to cigarette smoke over the last few years. I'm now at the point where if I'm fairly close to someone who has just been out smoking, I start coughing and tightening. I know exactly where the employees smoking room is at my local Kroger since I start wheezing if one of them is there smoking while I'm shopping for yogurt...

So, I have no problem with restricting exposure to smoke for patients in a hospital environment. Considering that such exposure can worsen illnesses, health care workers do need to be more conscientious about how there habits may effect the health of those whom they care for. Now having said that, I'm also all for working towards a practicable solution to manage separate smoking areas and keeping exposure to smoke from health care workers to an absolute minimum as possible. Maybe a separate entrance/exit to a designated smoking area with well planned and separate ventilation to keep smoke from getting in the building. But if that and other creative measures fail to keep smoke exposure from effecting the patients, then the only safe solution is a total ban on smoking on hospital property... Sorry, but I shouldn't be endangered by the very place that's supposed to help me remain healthy.

[northzax]

25. indeed

this is why you have a smoking area that is removed from places where people are forced to travel. and you enforce it. I have no problem with that at all.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

30. There are some places banning smoking makes perfect sense

A hospital is one of them..

[Squatch]

32. How many cigarette breaks do smokers take in a typical work day?

How many cigarette breaks do non-smokers take?

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

37. My last job:

I worked with a chimney of a man who took one smoking break every 45 - 60 minutes. He was a good guy and a great worker and once and awhile when I needed a stretch I would go outside with him to shoot the breeze (I grew up with smokers so I can tolerate the smell)

[VP505]

3. That is damned

nervy, you would think they are running some kind of a place to heal sick people or something.

[Bluebear]

9. Yeah, heaven forbid a smoker with a horribly ill child be able to smoke outside.

Or a smoker with a spouse in the emergency room. Nah, let 'em suffer.

[XboxWarrior]

11. that's exactly why Herion.......

is a better drug than Nicotine.

You can just do it in the bathroom.......no smell, no hassle.

Get on the Junk! ;)

[Mojorabbit]

12. I spent a month on night duty staying with my dad

in the hospital. Thank goodness they had a smoking area outside. I would get the nurse to come in at 4am and go out to stretch and have a smoke. Nothing more stressful than an ill parent. All three of the hospitals here since then banded together and put smoking bans in. They did it all at once so nurses would not leave to go to a hospital that had an outdoor smoking section.

[MediaBabe]

17. Cause a cigarette is so much more important than a "horribly

sick child or a spouse in the emergency room."

NOTHING should interfere with having that next cigarette.

"I know you don't feel good honey but try not to die before I get back, huh? Cause you know I get cranky if I can't smoke and you don't want the last thing I say to you to be mean and nasty, do you?"

[Bluebear]

20. Yes, if you happen to be addicted to nicotine. Glad you're perfect, not everyone is.

I don't smoke but the situations I listed are the last ones when I would have to sanctimoniously lecture a smoker about their addiction.

[Javaman]

46. I'm glad you equate perfection to someone who doesn't smoke! :)

I always thought I was perfect, now I have confirmation.

Thanks! :popcorn:

[Toasterlad]

21. Wow. You're Just.... Wow.

[Mojorabbit]

24. What a screwed up thing to say. eom

[Squatch]

36. Good point.

:thumbsup:

[seabeyond]

48. sick..... not to mention pretty damn ugly. i think this post is the hieght

of the anti smoker being as ugly as any human can possibly be to another person. yet.... you have the audacity to point the finger of shame to a smoker. you win, hands down in shame

[Scout]

50. :applause:

:applause:

[gratuitous]

14. First they kicked the smokers out of the ICU

But I didn't object, because my relative wasn't in Intensive Care.

When will mankind ever learn???

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. They haven't kicked the smokers out! They've just stopped them smoking in there.

If a smoker is sufficiently desperate to smoke, they can go out to the car park, smoke in their car, and come back.

[mourningdove92]

18. The hospital I work at did the same thing.

So now its on the street corners for me when I need my nicotine fix.

[burythehatchet]

19. Funny thing, there's a prominent hospital in Atlanta with a McD in the lobby.

Now that's ridiculous.

[dflprincess]

28. One in Minneapolis as well - and it's one of main cardiac centers in the area

Meanwhile, most the hospitals in the area have banned smoking on their grounds and, a recovring smoker, I guess it won't affect me. BUT, several years ago my mom had emergency surgey, the hospital still had a heated area in the parking ramp where they allowed smoking and I did take advantage of it.

Yes, smoking is a nasty habit with nothing good about it but, when you're under a lot of stress (ie loved one in the OR), that is not the time to be forced to go without nicotine.

[burythehatchet]

44. Satisfy that urge with a couple of quarter pounders!

[water]

23. Their property, their right.

[TahitiNut]

26. That's EXACTLY the rationale

... that businesses in the South used to refuse service to blacks in the 50s and 60s. That's just a GREAT stance. Be proud.

:eyes:

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

33. Sorry..

I generally am against municipality issues smoking bans but when a private business (especially a hospital) does it they are well within their rights.

They are not refusing service smokers they are refusing to allow smokers to light up. In a perfect world they should have an area on grounds for these people but they should not be compelled to allow smoking any more than they should to allow people to do shots..

[onenote]

38. please tell me you didn't just equat a ban on smoking on hospital property to racial segregation

[TahitiNut]

39. If you want to preserve some posture by making such a simple-minded interpretation ...

... don't let me stop you.

Clue: "The ends do not justify the means."

[One_Life_To_Give]

27. Do patients have to walk off property now

I can remember seeing patients outside with their IV Polls smoking. SAo now do they have to drag themselves completly off hospital property? While wearing Johnies in the Winter?:wow:

[TahitiNut]

31. They give the patients nicotine patches. (For a price, of course.)

:shrug:

[One_Life_To_Give]

40. They were expensive enough in the drug store

I would hate to see what a hospital would charge.

[TahitiNut]

42. I think it'd be interesting to see how insurance companies deal with the charges.

Personally, I wouldn't know. :shrug:

[zorahopkins]

29. Chewing Tobacco, Too?

Did they also ban chewing tobacco?

Are you allowed to wear a nicotine patch inside the hospital?

Does the hospital serve bacon in its cafeteria?

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

35. Probabally not

But I bet the ban spitting your chaw at other people

making people lick your nicotine patch

and force feeding others bacon.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

34. Well, Actually, I Do Find That A Bit Reactionary.

A certain threshold of distance from the hospital itself makes tons of sense. In the parking lot itself under normal terms? Not so much.

[seabeyond]

41. you havent been able to smoke in hospitals forever. no smoker has issue

so you are sounding a bit absurd making it sound like anyone would have issue. they use to have an outside area for smokers though for convenience that hurt no one with second hand. to take those out is a totally different thing. to say no smoking on premise which is the parking lot that hurts no one is another thing.

go on with you silly rant

[davsand]

43. Oh wow. From the OP title, I though this was a parody thread.

Looking at the responses I am staggered...

Our local hospitals have been smoke free on their grounds for a couple of years now.

We have two towns that conjoin (Champaign/Urbana) and both passed resolutions at one point that don't allow for smoking in public venues like bars and restaurants. This was all eclipsed by a state law as of Jan One that requires no smoking in any restaurant or bar in Illinois, and no smoking within a certain number of feet of any building entrance.

I have seen the issue debated at length by both advocates for and against the resolutions, and frankly, there just hasn't been much sanity on either side of the debate.

I can personally accept that the use of any property should be up to the owners-and it should be up to them to decide on smoking. I can also see the point about employees and exposure to smoke in the workplace. I do think it is a potential health issue for them and probably falls under a workplace safety debate.

Regards!


Laura

[AZ Criminal JD]

45. I know your post was an attempt to demonstrate your PC

intolerance towards smoking. But you have much to fear from hospitals and it isn't smoking which has been banned for years. About 195,000 patients die from hospital errors each year and 99,000 die from hospital acquired infections. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/11856.php You have a much better chance of avoiding these deaths by going to the quack you referenced. For a hospital to ban smoking while allowing this yearly pile of dead bodies to accumulate is a true joke.

[zorahopkins]

47. Amen!

Amen to that!

Hospitals are terrible places to be if you are sick. The sanitary conditions of most hospitals are awful.

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, hospital cafeterias serve food items high in fat and cholestorol -- like bacon nad hamburgers and french fries.

[Flubadubya]

49. Arkansas State Law Now Mandates This...

For a little better than a year now, a law has been in effect in Arkansas that bans smoking on any hospital property/campus. This is not just individual hospital policy but, rather, State Law... and YES, Huckleberry was Governor when this law was passed.

Mike "Nanny-State" Huckabee!!